986 Tuning Options

[78F350]

Enough about the Sprintboopter

Originally Posted by SchuttsR1

Hello all,

This is my first Porsche and was wondering what sort of tuning options are out there? Reflashes are fine but I was wondering if there is a jumper harness out there to plug a stand alone ECU in? Something like a Haltech, ECU master, or Link.

SchuttsR1, As you may have noticed, there are not many good answers to your question. Is your goal more power or specifically tuning/stand alone ECU?

Over the years, there has been plenty of discussion about more power from more air and exhaust, reducing parasitic drain with PS delete and smaller crank pulley. The true gains have been noticeable, but still minimal when actually tested on a dyno. Neil made some great videos: https://986forum.com/forums/performance-technical-chat/64917-how-much-power-can-you-squeeze-out-986-boxster-s.html

One of my non-street 986s has a 996 intake, tune, and headers. My butt-dyno says it's more torquey, but it may mostly be altering the range for the peak of the curve.

There was a supercharger kit produced for a while, but they are rare and again, the gains were minimal for the expense.

Engine swaps seem to be the best way to gain significant power in these cars.

[SchuttsR1]

Thank you for the response. I have a 3.2L that is swapped into the base model car. I was looking at forced induction to give it a bit more of a kick and swapping fuel to E85 to help with the charge cooling. I was going to use a smaller single turbo to help with the down low torque. I was curious on what the limitations of the factory sensors and computer were?
I currently swap an ecu masters emu black between two cars but they are supposed by a plug in patch harness. They do support vw and I have seen cam and crank trigger setting in the drop down menu that should support these engines. That is why I asked if any one has done this before.

Originally Posted by 78F350

Enough about the Sprintboopter


SchuttsR1, As you may have noticed, there are not many good answers to your question. Is your goal more power or specifically tuning/stand alone ECU?

Over the years, there has been plenty of discussion about more power from more air and exhaust, reducing parasitic drain with PS delete and smaller crank pulley. The true gains have been noticeable, but still minimal when actually tested on a dyno. Neil made some great videos: https://986forum.com/forums/performance-technical-chat/64917-how-much-power-can-you-squeeze-out-986-boxster-s.html

One of my non-street 986s has a 996 intake, tune, and headers. My butt-dyno says it's more torquey, but it may mostly be altering the range for the peak of the curve.

There was a supercharger kit produced for a while, but they are rare and again, the gains were minimal for the expense.

Engine swaps seem to be the best way to gain significant power in these cars.

[SchuttsR1]

Originally Posted by 78F350

SchuttsR1, As you may have noticed, there are not many good answers to your question. Is your goal more power or specifically tuning/stand alone ECU?

I have done a 3.2L swap on my base along with a 2.5L 5 speed. I like the bump in torque but I would like a little more than what the NA engine has to offer. I was looking to add a small turbo to the car along with the addition of E85 to help with the intake air temp.
I have a ECU Masters EMU black that I swap between two cars and I would love to add it to the boxster. Unfortunately they don't make an adapter harness like the other two cars but it looks like the crank and cam shaft triggers are supported. I would like to use the additional safety options the EMU has over the stock ECM as well.